Some types of vehicles, such as marine vessels including yachts, tug boats, commercial fishing boats, and the like, include one or more externally mounted spotlights for illuminating nearby objects. In some cases, these spotlights may be remotely controlled to pivot vertically and/or horizontally to thereby illuminate a particular object of interest.
Previous spotlights are limited by one or more drawbacks. For example, in order to facilitate the motion described above, previous marine spotlights typically include multiple external housing sections that pivot relative to one another. Gaps between the housing sections, although small, provide leak paths through which water and/or moisture can enter the spotlight. This water ingress can damage electrical components within the spotlight, thereby reducing its operating life, or fog the lens or reflector.
As another example, pivoting spotlights typically include a drive motor for each direction of motion. The drive motors may be selectively operated (e.g., by pressing a button on a remote control) to pivot the spotlight over a range of motion limited by the spotlight housing. However, at the ends of the range of motion, the motors may nevertheless be energized in an attempt to move the spotlight beyond its range of motion. Such an action can cause the motors to stall and reduce their operating life.
As yet another example, some remote controls for previous spotlights are wireless devices. These wireless remote controls are typically powered by their own internal battery that is received in the remote control and covered by a battery door. It can be difficult to remove the battery door when attempting to access the battery. A user must often attempt to pry between the battery door and the remote control housing, even after the latch of the door is released, using their fingers or another thin object, such as a paper clip, key or the like. Such a task can easily frustrate a user.
As such, what is needed is an improved marine spotlight that addresses one or more of the above drawbacks.